NFB-Newsline: News at the Touch of a Button

When I first became blind, I found it very hard to keep up with the news each day. At the time, I could use a handheld CCTV (closed-circuit Television that magnifies print) to read the newspaper, but because of formatting and the strain on my eyes, I rarely read the daily paper. In fact, the only time I can remember being really interested about something in the newspaper was when a friend wrote a Letter to the Editor and wanted my opinion on it.

These days, though, I read the Raleigh News & Observer nearly every day, along with a number of others...the Washington Post, New York Times, the Economist, Science News, and newspapers that I would never have access to otherwise, like the Anchorage Daily News and Lexington Herald Leader. Why would I read these, you might ask. Sometimes, the most fascinating news come from local newspapers. I have read articles about a huge variety of topics, from a man who is blind and paralyzed who got a new leash on life through the use of a foreheaad mouse to the problems that Alaskans have with bears wrecking the inside of their cars looking for food...who ever knew? I have never been so informed about the news and interests of people all over the United States and all over the world (the Economist writes news from all over the world, as does the New York Times and several other national magazines).

The NFB-Newsline, sponsored by the National Federation of the Blind, along with state sponsors that vary by state, is a news-by-phone service available to the print disabled (people who are blind, dyslexic, or otherwise unable to read regular print). To get access to the phone service, you must first register. You can call the NFB-Newsline office at 1-866-504-7300 or go to the website www.nfb.org/nfb/Newspapers_by_Phone.asp for more information. It is free to register. Once you are registered, you can access the service at 1-888-882-1629 (there are also local numbers that vary by state). The first time you access Newsline from a phone, you will be required to enter your user ID number and PIN. After that, however, you can simply press 1 on the number pad to login.

When you login, you can access any of the newspapers available. My suggestion is first to press 9 from the main menu, which will take you to the tutorial articles. This will give you a thorough tutorial of what numbers to press when, what features you can access, and how to change the voice type, pitch, volume, and speed. There is also a new feature that allows you to e-mail a single article to your inbox by pressing the pound sign and 9 in rapid succession. You have to have your e-mail address registered with NFB-Newsline, but you can do this when you register for the service.

There is also a way to access NFB-Newsline on the Net. The website is www.nfbnewslineonline.org. I have not tried this service yet, but I was told it is the same as the phone service, except that you don’t have to use the phone to access it (Duh!). So, if you try NFB-Newsline Online, be sure to let me know if you like it!

There are some downsides to NFB-Newsline, though. It's only available to people in the United States and Puerto Rico, and not all newspapers are available. Puerto Rico, for example, has no newspapers on NFB-Newsline, for lack of funding. Puerto Ricans have access to the newspapers from the states, as well as national magazines, but there are no local newspapers available.

NFB-Newsline is a great supplement to other methods of reading the news, such as listening to the news on TV, reading on-line articles, and listening to local reading services. in my area, Triangle Radio Reading Services reads articles from the newspaper and magazines, sales papers for grocery, department, and pharmacy stores, and reads from novels. Other resources for news include magazine subscriptions through the National Library Service or other organizations and word-of-mouth news from family and friends.

Check out the NFB-Newsline. It's free, easy, and informative!

Also look forward to these topics:
Magazines in Accessible Formats
News on the Web: What’s Accessible?
Local Reading Services: Who Has Them, and How Do They Work?